Key turning point in career: Leaving his job as an Air Force pilot to focus on a career with the Metropolitan Airports Commission.

What’s next: Thinking about retirement and the “next aviation challenge.”

Family: Wife Joan; three children; and seven grandchildren

When Jeff Hamiel started working at the Metropolitan Airports Commission as its first manager of noise abatement and environmental affairs, he considered it a temporary gig —a year, tops. A U.S. Air Force pilot, Hamiel dreamed at the time of flying planes for a commercial airline or a corporation.

But, soon after taking his post at the MAC in 1977, he realized the airport industry offered him plenty of opportunities and challenges. So, Hamiel made a choice that would change his life. He hunkered down for what has become a 37-year career with the agency. Not able to give up flying completely, Hamiel joined the Air Force Reserve and stayed there for more than 20 years.

“It was exactly the right decision for me,” says Hamiel. “The dynamics of the airline industry have kept the work interesting, and I enjoy the policy side — how air transportation works worldwide.”

Today, as executive director and CEO since 1985, Hamiel oversees a system of seven airports, 580 public employees and a $300 million annual budget.

The airports commission has done well under Hamiel’s leadership.

A recent MAC-funded study found that the commission is the largest economic engine in the state, generating more than $10 billion a year. Last year, the Air Transport Research Society at the University of British Columbia recognized the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport (MSP) as the most efficiently managed airport in North America.

Hamiel says one of his biggest challenges continues to be how to prepare for the system’s tremendous growth.

In 2010, the airports commission finished a $3.2 billion expansion at MSP, and the agency currently has plans for another $2.4 billion terminal expansion there.

“We are continuously growing and changing,” says Hamiel, noting that the system is expected to grow from today’s 34 million travelers to 50 million by 2030. “I see it as a personal challenge to meet that growth demand, and to make certain we meet the needs of the community and we connect Minnesota to world markets.”